Weblog of The Gate to Greece. Mainly about Athens and Piraeus because I live here and especially about food because I love it.

30 April, 2010

The Unpunishables

Today I bought Kathimerini newspaper, instead of going to language school. The thing is that I caught cold and not feeling well. Moreover, I had assignments yesterday night - by night I mean after 10 o'clock - and early this morning. I thought it was better to take a day off, until the next assignment in the evening. I read the paper to improve my Greek.

By the way, one article of Kathimerini attracted my attention in particular. It is about the corruption in public sector and its incorregibility in Greece. According to the article, in the past six years, NONE of the 450 important cases of suspected misconducts was brought to justice (including those cases that were brought to the court, but not yet terminated or in course of appeal). Did you hear that? NONE!

It is a very depressing picture. The corrupted public officials are practically unpunishable.

Many Greeks I spoke with said that they wanted those who responsible for the current financial/economic crsis to be punished, and if possible, wanted them to return the money. I thought and told them that it was irrealistic. But, honestly, I did not know that so bad and resperate was the situation.

The Greeks tend to make laws just for the sake of making them or just for appearance. The recent most evident case was the ban on smoking in public space; everyone knows this law, but there is absolutely no enforcement). As an EU member state, Greece had to legistate against smoking. It was just a show. But, it is just one evident case; there are so many - and more significant - laws that have/had the same destiny.